Michigan 111, Houston Baptist 68
Michigan's final guarantee game before heading to the Bahamas was every bit the expected blowout and then some. Houston Baptist shot quickly regardless of the quality of the look and neglected to play much in the way of defense; the Wolverines almost couldn't help but score in bunches.
The Wolverines finished with 111 points, their most since scoring 112 on February 22nd, 1998 against Indiana. The 86 possessions in this game were the team's most in any game in the KenPom database, which dates back to 2002. That includes overtime games; the previous high was 84 possessions in a double-OT win over Notre Dame in the 2006 NIT. The Wolverines drained 14 three-pointers, five off the school record, on only 29 attempts.
Isaiah Livers missed one of his ten shots. This was not the one. [Campredon]
Isaiah Livers set a career high with 24 points on 9/10 shooting, not missing a shot until an open corner three rimmed out in the second half. Zavier Simpson handed out a career-high 14 assists, tying him with two Gary Grant games from 1988 for the second-most in program history behind Derrick Walton's record 16. Players to score for Michigan included:
- Cole Bajema, who went 2/3 while seeing time with the starters in each half
- Austin Davis, on an uncontested dunk and a layup
- CJ Baird, who naturally hit a pull-up three
- Columbia walk-on transfer Jaron Faulds, for his first career points at Michigan
- walk-on Rico Ozuna-Harrison, for his first collegiate points
Walk-on Luke Wilson (NTLW) was the only Michigan player who didn't register a point, and he assisted Ozuna-Harrison's layup. HBU had a starter go 26 minutes without a point while committing six turnovers.
Michigan recorded more steals (nine) than HBU had assists (six). Meanwhile, the Huskies coughed up 19 turnovers.
In four games against Houston Baptist, Michigan's average margin of victory is now an even 36 points. These are fun for aiming at records and the like, but it might be time to schedule another program.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score, which sure is something.]
Buckets. [Campredon]
November 22nd, 2019 at 9:47 PM ^
Nunez 2-10 from 3 is...rough. Literally everything else is awesome.
November 22nd, 2019 at 9:57 PM ^
Not sure if you were able to grab a stream, but an annoying number of those rimmed out. His defense was still very poor though. Unfortunately, Bajema wasn't much of an improvement on that end. Franz will be a huge addition once he's healthy, assuming his combination of length, decent quickness, and basketball IQ is as good as the early practice hype led on.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:04 PM ^
Agree with this. Jumper looked fine, took good shots, seemed to have bad luck. On the other end of the spectrum, Simpson was 3/4 on threes but the miss was an airball, and I'm not really sure what to do with either other than wait for more numbers to accrue.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
Just my opinion, but I think Simpson is in a similar situation to Brooks (and this is also something we saw occasionally with Mo Wagner) where the open shots have a good shot at going in, but get a defender in his face and it's probably going to be comically off.
To be honest though he really just needs to shoot like 35% on open threes to draw defenders out a bit more and make his drives off triple threats insanely lethal. Dylan hit on that a bit in the UMHoops recap.
November 23rd, 2019 at 12:51 AM ^
Mo and Simpson in a shooting comparison. Not sure if serious. Maybe Teske but not Mo.
November 23rd, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
Did you read the actual comment? Apparently not? Christ, this site... Mo, like Simpson, had the issue where a guy in his face would often make the shots go horribly awry. That’s the only comparison being made.
November 24th, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
Take it easy Francis.
November 23rd, 2019 at 2:12 AM ^
The shots were mostly good and open and this was the game you wanted him to keep shooting and (hopefully) gain some confidence. He just had an off night and that happens. If the game was tomorrow he (Nunez) could have possibly made 5 of those shots.
November 22nd, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
Yeah, sad to say that's the first thing that jumped out at me. And he was recruited as a can't-miss 3 pt sharpshooter.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
I’ve been to four of the games thus far and have been watching Nunez closely. His stroke is pretty smooth. Misses are very close. I’d be willing to bet his 3 pt percentage increases quite a bit over time.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:11 PM ^
Eh, I'm not worried about it (yet, at least). He wouldn't be starting (and free to shoot that many threes) if his coaches and teammates didn't know he could do it. Very rarely you get those guys who can drain in practice but not in games, but I'm not going to assume that's Nunez just yet. I'm sure he'll figure it out soon.
November 22nd, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
Having the chance to see him at a few practices and being always at the game early for the warm up ... Yeah he is really impressive at 3.
At the last game at warm up - Nunez taunted Bajema into a tiny contest at warm up and Cole was clearly not interested to play against him... They did start it and well ... Carnage, I think Cole missed 3 out 5 when Nunez went 4 on 5 missing the last one.
Tonight, some of his first miss were really close and maybe his position was not to ideal - I think... He seemed to be more accurate when he is more on the wing rather than closer to the corner (where he failed his first attempt) - Probably got him thinking he looked more hesitant until he started to strike them again.
I am really not worrying for him. As said: All of his teammates and coach (From this year and last year) speak highly of him.
November 23rd, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
Yeah people dumping on Nunez should pump the brakes. Last year everyone wanted to run Brooks off the team. Some guys go through slumps, Nunez is essentially getting his first college action. He's not lighting the basket on fire right now, doesn't mean he can't improve and be a useful piece.
November 23rd, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
True on the offensive end, but his defense is brutal. He's going to have to hit a high percentage of 3's to offset that.
November 23rd, 2019 at 9:55 PM ^
Fo'sur, his defense needs to improve dramatically. Especially seeing how much of a liability he has been vs "not dangerous team".
It is hard to tell if he will improve - my sentiment from the court is that he rush and over commits his defense making "freshman" style mistakes. Nothing impossible to fix.
With Wagner coming in, he will clearly see his minutes dropping like Snow in Michigan.
But who knows, I sort of believe he can dev into a decent player.
November 23rd, 2019 at 9:44 AM ^
Not sure where you got this take. He did very little through four years of HS and shot 25% from HS 3 if I recall. Broke out in AAU ball after his senior year and prep school. Can't wait for Franz's to come back because Nunez is a liability on both ends of the court right now.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:55 PM ^
Ok, so not sure we can really learn anything, hopefully coach was able to draw value out of a glorified pay to watch practice.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
Crazy that we scored more in this game than we ever did in the Beilein era.
November 23rd, 2019 at 8:36 AM ^
It’s all pace and possessions. Not as efficient as Beilein’s system but will score with higher volume. It also means teams like Houston Baptist are still going to score 70 shooting 35% to keep up.
November 22nd, 2019 at 11:08 PM ^
Did not see the game, but when you score that much playing against stick figures, it’s impressive. I love how our first four games laid out. One legit opponent, one tomato can, two semi-semi-legit opponents. Allowed the team to get a little rhythm and confidence without having to absorb a loss. This would have been a waste under Beilein, but to start the Juwan era, it was perfect. Now we get some real teams.
November 22nd, 2019 at 11:33 PM ^
Looks like Castleton scored quite well. 14 pts in 14 min.
November 22nd, 2019 at 11:34 PM ^
How does Teske go 1 for 3 in a game like this?!?
November 22nd, 2019 at 11:37 PM ^
Teske only had 3 points?
That's a touch worrisome, maybe?
November 23rd, 2019 at 12:05 AM ^
How? It was a damn 86 possession game. Guards were penetrating at will and kicking out for wide open threes. He rebounded well and played wall-like defense. We have an entire season of him being an incredibly good Big Ten center. How in the world would a outlier-level paced game against a trash team in which he played 19 minutes be worrying at all? Why does our fan base react like this?
November 23rd, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^
Why do *human beings react like this?
November 23rd, 2019 at 9:55 PM ^
React like what? I asked a question when a Senior Center who's been scoring 17 pts/game in the first 3 games, and been one of the focal points of our offense, only scored 3 points in this game.
I didn't see it, I just saw the box score, with a LOT of players scoring in droves, and he only got 3. So I asked about it, and I get attacked like I went off on him (which I didn't).
Ex-fucking-scuse me for asking a question.
November 23rd, 2019 at 6:57 AM ^
12 boards, a block, 2 assists and 4 steals in 19 minutes is not worrisome.
November 23rd, 2019 at 7:01 AM ^
Not really, Houston turnovers, bad shots, and phantom defense meant we scored before Teske crossed center court.
November 23rd, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
It's not worrisome. But it is a weird stat that should be included in Ace's list of weird stats.
November 23rd, 2019 at 12:30 AM ^
That card looks so tiny in Coach Howard's hands. lol
November 23rd, 2019 at 12:55 AM ^
Its a poster board.
November 23rd, 2019 at 8:21 AM ^
Actually it was the missing billboard from 24.
November 23rd, 2019 at 6:44 AM ^
C J Baird is still on the team? Is this his Robbie Hummel year?
November 23rd, 2019 at 7:47 AM ^
He's still putting together his highlight reel material.
November 23rd, 2019 at 9:54 AM ^
More Rico please
November 23rd, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
14 players saw game time. That's awesome!
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